Eyewitness to Genocide in Kosovo: Kosovo-Metohija
and the Skenderbeg Division

Introduction

The historical and political precedent for the creation
of a Greater Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo-Metohija
region, along with territory in southwest Montenegro and western
Macedonia (then Southern Serbia ,now part of Macedonia, but a part of Stara
Srbija in the medieval period), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers,
fascist Italy and Nazi Germany under a plan by Adolf Hitler
and Benito Mussolini to dismember Yugoslavia.The Kosovska Mitrovica
region was retained under German occupation because of the Trepca mines.
The districts of Vucitrn, Lab, and Dezevo or Novi Pazar were made part
of the Kosovo Department.The Tetovo, Debar, Struga, Gostivar regions of
western Macedonia were ceded to a Greater Albania under Italian administration.The
Gnjilane, Vitin, and Kacanik districts were ceded by Germany to Bulgaria
to administer.In the initial stages of the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,
Germany organized a police force of approximately 1,000 Kosovar Albanians
and Albanian paramilitary forces of the same number known as Vulnetara.During
the Italian administration from 1941-1943, Kosovo Serbs, Jews, Gypsies,
and other non-Albanians were arrested, interned, deported, or murdered.
Serbian houses were burned and Serbian inhabitants were driven out of Kosovo.
Dozens of Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished and looted. Over 10,000
Kosovo Serb and Montenegrin families were driven out of Kosovo by Albanians
who were put in charge of Kosovo-Metohija by the Italian and German
forces.Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins were deported to forced labor camps
in Pristina and in Mitrovica to work the Trepca mines and to Albania to
work on construction projects as forced or slave labor. The Italian regime
encouraged the Kosovo Committee and the Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union)
to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo as part of a Greater Albania.
The government and police were made up of Albanians while the Albanian
language and the Albanian flag were permitted in Kosovo-Metohija.Germany
assumed direct control and re-occupied Kosovo when Italy surrendered in
1943.

Skenderbeg SS Division
- Waiting for action orders in Prizren

On April 17,1944, pursuant to instructions by Reichsfuehrer-SS
Heinrich Himmler, an Albanian Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs
Division der SS "Skanderbeg" or "Skenderbeg" (Albanische Nr.1), was formed,
which occupied and ethnically cleansed Kosovo-Metohija of Orthodox Serbs,
Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians. Himmler envisioned the formation
of two Albanian SS Divisions, but the war ended before the second could
be formed. Approximately 300 Albanian troops in the Bosnian Muslim 13th
Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Handzar" or "Handschar" were transferred
to the newly forming SS division. The Skanderbeg Division was made up of
6,491 ethnic Albanians, two-thirds of whom were from Kosovo-Metohija, "Kosovars".
To this Albanian core were added German troops,Reichdeutsche from Austria
and Volkdeutsche officers,NCOs and enlisted men transferred from the 7th
SS Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" or "Princ Eugen", then stationed in
Bosnia-Hercegovina.The Skanderbeg Division was made up of Albanian
Muslims of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam and several hundred Albanian
Roman Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni.The total strength of the
Skanderbeg Division was 8,500-9,000 men of all ranks.

The first commander of the Skanderbeg Division was SS
Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum,from April
to June, 1944. In June,1944, SS Standartenfuehrer August Schmidhuber, formerly
an officer in the Prinz Eugen 7th SS Division, was appointed division
commander until August,1944, when SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Alfred Graf (or
Graaf) assumed command of the remanants of the division until May,1945.
The Skanderbeg Division engaged in a policy of ethnic
cleansing and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian and Jewish
populations of Kosovo-Metohija and the Stara Srbija region.In Kosovo-Metohija,
the Skanderbeg Division massacred unarmed Serbian civilians with impunity
and indiscriminately in a systematic plan of genocide.The Skanderbeg Division
sought to create an ethnically pure Kosovo-Metohija, "Kosova" or "Kosove",
cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, the untermenschen (subhumans)
rayah targeted for extermination.The Skanderbeg Dision played a role in
the Holocaust or Final Solution when, during its occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,
it rounded up scores of Kosovo Jews and Orthodox Serbs, persons deemed
enemies of the Third Reich, who were subsequently deported to concentration
camps.

Before the action

With the surrender of Italy in 1943, Germany re-occupied
Kosovo-Metohija and German occupation forces sought to strengthen Albanian
nationalist groups and to recruit Albanians into German forces.On September
16, 1943, Dzafer Deva, a member of the Balli Kombetar, organized the Second
League of Prizren "in cooperation with the German occupation authorities"
which intensified its efforts to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of Serbs and
Jews and other non-Albanians. Attacks against Kosovo Serbs increased and
intensified. Over 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families were driven out of Kosovo.
The Balli Kombetar and the Second League of Prizren were instrumental in
the creation of the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg", which
was envisioned as advancing the cause of Greater Albania by making Kosovo
ethnically pure, cleansed of Serbs and Jews.

Before the action

When Germany re-occupied Kosovo and Albania following
the collapse of Italy in 1943, the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS sought
to integrate the manpower into the German forces. Himmler wanted to use
the Albanian manpower to form two Waffen SS Divisions. Moreover, "anthropological
studies" by the Italians during 1939-1943 purported to show that the Ghegs
of northern Albania and Kosovo-Metohija were Aryans, herrenvolk, the master
race, who had preserved their racial purity for over two millennia. Thus,
from a practical and theoretical standpoint, Himmler was determined to
form two Albanian SS Dvisions.

Bedri Pejani, the president of the Second League of Prizen,
wrote Himmler a letter of March 19, 1944, asking that Himmler organize
Albanian military formations as part of the armed forces of the Third Reich:

Excellency, the central committee of the Second Albanian
League of Prizren has authorized me to inform you that only your excellency
is united with the Second Albanian League, that you should form this army,
which will be able to safeguard the borders of Kosovo and liberate the
surrounding regions. ...
.... Bedri Pejani

Hans Lammers sent Pejaniís letter to Himmler, who wrote
Lammers about the planned formation of the two Kosovar Albanian SS Divisions:

Most respected party friend Lammers! I received your letter
of April 29 together with the letter of the president of the central
committee of the Second Albanian League of Prizren.At this time one Albanian
division is being formed. As things now stand, I plan to form a second
division, and afterwards an Albanian corps will be formed. ...
Heil Hitler!
Yours very faithfully,
H. Himmler

The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg was formed and trained
in Kosovo and was made up primarily of Muslim Albanians from Kosovo, over
two-thirds of the personnel were from Kosovo.

Eyewitness to Genocide

On July 28, 1944 in the village of Velika in the Lim region
of Montenegro, Skanderbeg massacred 428 Serbs of which 120 were children
and burned around 300 houses during Operation Draufgegner, in a joint attack
with the 7th Prinz Eugen Division. Milunka Vucetic was an eyewitness, whose
account of the massacre follows:

I approached the house of Milovan Vucetic. Around afternoon
an army from Ivanpolje came into the area.We decided to take them bread,
salt, which we had.

When the army approached, I saw how in the olive grove
Tomislav, the son of Milovan Vucetic, played.Two soldiers took him, a third
ran over, ...one took out a knife and began to skin the child alive from
his eyes downwards. I could not watch what occurred. I began screaming
and his mother Leposava-Lepa ran over to protect him. She was killed

Radoje Knezevic, who survived the massacre, recalled:

I was only 11 years old when Hitlerís Division "Skanderbeg"
and "Prinz Eugen" burned down the village of Velika and killed about 428
persons.Our family paid a heavy price that day.

On that day my mother Stojanka was killed and then her
body burned. The same fate befell my two brothers Nedeljko (5 years old)
and Ratko ( 11 months old). My sister Raba ( 18 years old) was killed as
she was trying to protect her mother and young brothers. And she too was
burned.

Draguna Knezevic gave the following account:

In the house of Andra Knezevic were killed Mona Stamatovic...and
Toma Savic with her daughter. ...In the house of Leka Knezevic, Stojanka
Knezevic (aged 42), her daughter Rabija (18 years old) and sons Nedjelko
(6 years old) and Ratko (1 year old).

In the house of Ljuba Stamatovic Miroslava Stamatovic
(50) was killed.

In the house of Janka Simonovic, his two daughters, Kosa
(18), and Milojka (19) were killed. Milojka was thrown alive into a fire.
In the house of Radote Simonovic, his daughter Milena (20) was killed.
...In the house of Nikola Tomovic, his wife Rabija and his daughter Milica,
who was five years old were killed. Milica was killed outside and thrown
in a fire, in the house.

Divna Vucetic, a resident of Velika, gave the following
account of events during the massacre:

...I heard news of massacres in the surrounding villages
so I became concerned for the safety of my children, the two eldest of
whom I sent in the woods...I held in my lap my one year old son, Boza.On
the threshold my daughter Persida approached, who was only three years
old, and after her my two nieces, four year old Kata and three year old
Nata, and daughters Cvete and Dusana Vucetic.

...A soldier approached with a gun...I told him that I
wanted to bring him bread, as I was ordered to. He replied to that:
"Germany has bread!" He spoke our language perfectly. He then shot at me,
killing my son Boza in my lap, and wounding me in the right hand.

The Kosovar Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division drove out
or ethnically cleansed approximately 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families, most
of whom fled as refugees to Serbia while Albanian colonists from Albania
entered Kosovo and took over their lands, homes, and possessions.In Between
Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo, Miranda Vickers described the ethnic
cleansing of the Skanderbeg SS Division as follows:

Until the first months of 1944 there were continued waves
of migration from Kosovo of Serbs and Montenegrins, forced to flee following
intimidation... The 21st SS ëSkanderbeg Divisioní (consisting, as already
mentioned, of two battalions) formed out of Albanian volunteers in the
spring of 1944, indiscriminately killed Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo.
This led to the emigration of an estimated 10,000 Slav families, most of
whom went to Serbia... replaced by new colonists from the poorer regions
of northern Albania.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in acts or war crimes
against the Kosovo Serbian population that constituted genocide and crimes
against humanity.

The Skenderbeg SS Division and the Holocaust

The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg played a role in the Holocaust
or Shoah, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,the extermination of
European Jewry. The first operation of Skanderbeg in Kosovo-Metohija was
the raid on Kosovo Jews in Pristina which occurred on May 14,1944. The
Albanian Kosovar SS troops raided apartments and homes where Kosovo Jews
lived, looted their possessions, and rounded them up for deportation to
the death camps. Kosovo Jews were subsequently placed in makeshift jails.
The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg apprehended 281 Kosovo Jews, which included
men, women, and children.From May to June, 1944, Skanderbeg apprehended
a total of 519 Kosovo Serbs and Jews.

During the initial German occupation of Pristina in 1941
before it was turned over to Italian administration, the property of Kosovo
Jews was seized and they were conscripted for forced labor like Kosovo
Serbs. In Kosovska Mitrovica, Jewish shops and stores were closed down
and Kosovo Jews were ordered to wear a yellow band to identify themselves
as Jews. The seizure of Jewish property was organized and conducted by
the Gestapo and members of the Albanian Committee. On May 20, 1941, Dzafer
Deva, the leader of the Mitrovica district, ordered the seizure of Jewish
property. Jewish businesses were supervised by members of the Albanian
Committee. The seizure of Jewish businesses and property was conducted
by Mamut Perijuc, Ramiz Mulic, and Osman Ibrahimovic, who worked in conjuction
with the German Gestapo. Ibrahimovic was the head of the commission overseeing
Jewish property. He ordered the demolition of the Jewish synagogue and
the destruction of papers and documents in the Jewish archive.In Pristina,
the seizure of Jewish property and anti-Jewish measures were undertaken
by the Kosovar Albanian regime placed in control and members of the Albanian
Kosovo Committee, Maljus Kosova, president of the Committee, Dzemal beg
Ismail Kanli, head of the police, Rasid Memedali, and Rifat Sukri Ramadan.

Yugoslav Jewish survivors blame the Kosovar Albanian Committee
for inciting the first and second internments of Kosovo Jews. In the Jewish
historical archives of Yugoslavia, the role of the 21st SS Division in
the Holocaust and in the genocide of Kosovo Jews and Serbs is described
as follows: "From May 25 to July 2, 1944 the Division "Skanderbeg"
apprehended 510 Jews, Serbs...They were put in jails, while 249 were sent
as forced laborers to the Reich."

The Skanderbeg Division played a hitherto unacknowledged
role in the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jewry. In Kosovo: A Short
History, Noel Malcolm noted that in the Djakovica region of Kosovo-Metohija,
the Skanderbeg Division engaged in "the round-up and deportation of 281
Jews" to the concentration-extermination camps in May, 1944. According
to Malcolm, "they took part in the most shameful episode in Kosovoís wartime
history." Malcolm, for the most part, ignored the actions or war crimes
of the Skanderbeg Division against the Kosovo Serbian population during
the same period. Of these 281 Kosovo Jews which the Kosovars deported,
more than 200 were killed by the Germans at the Nazi death camp of Belsen.
By 1945, 210 of the 551 Kosovo Jews known to reside in Kosovo had been
killed.The division sought to create an ethnically pure, homogenous Kosovo,
supported by Italy and Germany, a Kosovo ethnically cleansed of Orthodox
Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians, the untermenschen rayah,
not part of "enlightened Latin Christendom", not part of the so-called
West, not Aryans, but Slavs, who were targeted for extermination.

Conclusion

During the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany
during World War II, an Albanian Waffen SS Division, Skanderbeg, was formed
which committed war crimes against the Serbian Orthodox and Jewish populations
which constituted genocide and crimes against humanity. The Skanderbeg
Division engaged in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing against the
Kosovo Serbian and Jewish populations. This genocide contributed to the
Albanian goal and policy to create an ethnically pure and homogenous Kosovo.